In the spring it is getting very hot in India. Due to this fact all the Indians pull their beds outside at night so they don’t have to sleep in their hot houses. The narrator even says “The town has become a communal dormitory” (p. 52, l. 29-p. 53, l. 1).
At first she doesn’t want to sleep outside like all the Indians do because she was “embarrassed to go to bed in public” (p. 53, ll. 3-4). But because it’s too hot for her inside she pulls her bed into the courtyard and sleeps there.
She is very happy about sleeping there. She says she even lies awake for hours with happiness (l. 15). Then she listens to all the sounds in the surrounding area – but no to the Indians; they are totally quiet when they sleep (l. 10). She enjoys this quietness because over the day it’s very loud in the streets and very disruptive.
But she doesn’t just listen her surroundings. She watches the sky and thinks about being a part of the space.
Another aspect why she enjoys sleeping outside is that it makes her feel like she’s one of the Indians because they all do the same at that special moment – sleeping outside.
In this part of the story the narrator sounds completely happy about being in India and sleeping under the open sky. It’s probably a very new thing to her because she might have never done that in England before. That’s why she’s embarrassed at the beginning. But then she sees that it’s very useful and enjoyable. It gives her a new impression of India.
In my opinion it’s very cool when you sleep outside under the open sky. You get a new impression of the environment when you listen to all the animals. And it offers the narrator to become a part of India by doing something that they all do.
